[anton]

I'm retiring my PIII 500 and upgrading to a new Athlon 1.33 system. I know the best way to go w/ a new cpu/mb/ram is to reinstall everything from scratch. My question is this: what do I lose if I don't? Will Win2k be peaceful about this? Will my computer not work to its full potential? Any helpful comments appreciated.

Thanks
-anton

[Brian Frank]

Anton, Win2k is extremely hardware sensative, so if you are able to boot into Windows on your new system, it'll be a miracle. It will be better to do the reinstall now, as opposed to later when Win2k throws fits about the hardware.
It would be to your advantage to do a fresh install, because you'll end up having to do it somewhere on down the line.
Win2k wont complain about the cpu or ram, unless the ram has some IC issue with other ram sticks--but thats a rare scenario, but it will throw fits if you swap mobos. Even if you remove all the hardware, Win2k will probably not run at its best, or be as stable as if you did a clean install.

Bottom line: Save yourself the hassle and do it now so you dont have problems in the future.
I know this isnt the most ideal thing, but it will be worth the effort in the long run.